http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2013/02/26/more-convenience-less-privacy/
Online shopping is easy, fast and convenient. Affirm, a new business launched a few month ago, works as an intermediary between merchants and consumers. And customers can delay their payments when they buy something through Affirm. It works like “buy now, pay later”. However, a problem of Affirm is that they use all sort of customers’ data including phone ID, zip code, Facebook status to predict when the customers will likely pay bills.
Pariser once mentioned that “there’s always a bargain in personalization: In exchange for convenience, you had over some privacy and control to the machine”. Our new technologies provide us so many great things. They are easy, convenient, and less costly. However, we also have to sacrifice so many valuable things in return. One of those things is our privacy. It is almost impossible to stop using Google even though we know that our search history is collected and distributed to unknown third-parties.
The question I want to ask is, to what extent, would you give up your privacy for technology ?
To honestly answer your question Jayeon i think consciously i would not ever give up all my privacy to technology. When i say consciously, it’s in the sense that i read all the fine prints and privacy clause of what the companies are going to do with my information after i give it to them. However, know a days i have been more willing to just hit the I Agree button without aactually knowing what i am agreeing to. The reason for this is because it is less time consuming to just check that box off instead of reading about 50 pages of tiny words that about 48 of the pages have no necessary meaning. This act would be in an unconscious state of mind.
I would never give up my personal privacy to technology, well willingly that is. Subconsciously a majority of us already do so. The amount of personal information these companies have on us is amazing. As Pariser mentions, there have been many attempts in trying to cut down on the amount of personal information being gathered. This industry of gathering our personal information is a major force in today’s internet market. In a nut shell, my own personal privacy is important to me and if that information were to get in to the wrong hands, my identity may be at risk.
When we buy something online we already give out a good chunk of personal info each time to each vendor. They have our correct name, address (billing and shipping) phone number, email and so on. Compared to buying something in person where you can be completely anonymous and use cash, online buying is only able to work with the compromise of personal info. With payment options such as Ebay’s “bill me later” it is a way of financing a purchase therefore that company must run your credit history or your recent reputation based on past purchases. As for checking your Facebook statuses I’m almost certain these companies do not have a magic password to be able to view info that has been locked down to only your circle of friends.
I agree with my fellow classmates, we put out so much information out there without even realizing it. As much as technology may evolve and consequently make my life easier, there’s no doubt in my mind that I would give up my privacy just for that. I think it’s sad how dependent we’ve become of technology that we have to give up many things in order to be able to use it. I wouldn’t trust any company with my personal data because I know theres nothing beneficial for me in it, besides getting bombarded with promotional e-mails and such. There needs to be a barrier between technology and our personal lives.